Famous ballads, arias and duets from VERDI, PUCCINI, ROSSINI, VIVALDI, BELLINI, SCARLATTI, LARA, STRADELLA, TOSTI A mere three weeks after his much-acclaimed return to operatic and concert performance at the Salzburg Festival in August 1989, José Carreras appeared in another important musical event – a joint concert with his Spanish compatriot, singer Montserrat Caballé, held in Moscow’s famous Bolshoi Theatre. For this concert, the two singers put together a programme that was extremely colourful and varied and at the same time tasteful and well-balanced. The concert opens with a medley of baroque and belcanto gems from the 17th and 18th centuries, including a rendition by José Carreras of arie antiche by Alessandro Scarlatti. Italian and Spanish songs form a central element in the programme for this concert, including three canzoni by Francesco Paolo Tosti and one by Salvatore Cardillo, which are favourites from Carreras’ concert repertoire. These popular Italian songs are matched by several Spanish canciones popolares, sung by Montserrat Caballé. Last but not least, José Carreras and Montserrat Caballé could not be expected to neglected opera - even though it is a genre that is not central to this particular programme. It is represented by “Brindisi”, Violetta and Alfred’s champagne-fuelled drinking song from Act I of Verdi’s La Traviata, and Lauretta’s enchanting aria from Puccini’s one-act opera Gianni Schicchi.

Just one year after his successful and highly acclaimed comeback at the Vienna State Opera he returned to the same opera stage where he made his brilliant debut in 197, as a thirty-year-old: the Großes Festspielhaus in...